12 October 2017

Campaign Background Redux. . .

The original map of the campaign area drawn in Septermber of 2006 (post-Auto Levels, brightening, sharpening, and cropping with the Pixlr online photograph editing tools). The contested area in dark green is the Mark of Schleiz, a region rich in wildlife and other natural resources whose precise ownership has been long disputed by The Grand Duchy of Stollen and its enemy The Electorate of Zichenau.

Separated
by the Lesser Zwischen and Greater Zwischen rivers, and sharing equally in
delusions of grandeur and influence far beyond their frontiers, the Grand Duchy of Stollen and its mortal enemy, The Electorate of Zichenau, are set more or less within the real Europe of the immediate post-Seven Years War period.

Stollen
and Zichenau are surrounded by several tiny principalities --
Pillau-Zerbst, Pillau-Reuss, Werben-Steinau, Tauroggen-Fiebus, and
Zeller-Schwarzekatze -- who vacillate between allying themselves with
and/or fighting against either Stollen or Zichenau, depending on how
the wind blows on a given day. Typically,
war is declared by one or another state in the region at the slightest
pretense. Conflicts earlier in the century have had as their
catalysts: a royal love affair gone bad, temporarily misplaced crown
jewels, a plagiarized monograph on metaphysics by a dilettante
academic, an expatriate artist who failed to deliver a commissioned
portrait to his royal patron by the appointed deadline, and, during the
summer of 1767, the utter humiliation of Zichenau’s late Prince
Ruprecht II at the hands of a highly skilled master tailor.

More
broadly, this tiny patchwork of Europe is sandwiched between extreme
eastern Prussia, Courland, Poland, and Russia. As a further point of
reference, Riga is about two days to the north by northwest, downriver
from Krankenstadt, the sleepy Baroque capital of Stollen. Stollen,
Zichenau, and the adjacent principalities occupy only about 100 square
miles on the map. All were later absorbed by Prussia, Austria, and
Russia during the final partition of Poland in 1795, which is why
history books have had very little to say on the topic.

The
population in the region (mainly ethnic Germans, Wends, Poles,
Lithuanians, and Slavs with a sprinkling of Swedes and Danes left over
from the days when the latter two held a more vested interest in the
region) is fairly sparse, explaining the tiny armies that maneuver
against each other occasionally. The respective forces number
approximately 4-6 units of foot, 2-3 units of cavalry, and a few
batteries of artillery each. The principalities surrounding Stollen and
Zichenau are also good enough to furnish a few infantry units or some
cavalry when absolutely necessary, much like some of the smaller
Confederation of the Rhine states did for Napoleon I in his later wars.

For
their part, Prussia, Russia, and Austria regard Stollen and Zichenau
with bemused detachment. In fact, even the beleaguered King George III
of England refused an offer of mercenary troops from the former, during
the later war against the rebels in America. Further, while he has
Stollen never held forth publicly on the subject, behind closed doors,
however, the English ambassador, Lord Pipeclay Higginbotham-Bulling is
rumored to refer frequently to Stollen's Grand Duke as, "That
empty-headed coxcomb!"
Likewise, the Prussian ambassador to Stollen, the Freiherr Heinz von
dem Salat, once observed with a chuckle that the ongoing tug of war
between Stollenian and Zichenau was not worth the bother for the main
players on the European political stage.

How
did the current conflict between Stollen and Zichenau begin then? At
its root was the disappearance during February 1768 of Pillau-Zerbst’s
Princess Valerie, betrothed to the notorious French mercenary officer
Phillipe de Latte, which sparked considerable upheaval in diplomatic
and social circles of the time. At the time, issues of DerSchimtten Zeitung and Die Krankenstadt Tageblat, two widely read newspapers in the region,were filled with numerous speculative articles on the matter.

Popular
consensus blamed Zichenau’s Prince Ruprecht II for Valerie’s abduction.
Indeed, agents for Pillau-Zerbst reported that a young woman matching
her description was seen at various springtime social events with
Prince Ruprecht.
Various, convoluted, and half-hearted diplomatic efforts followed, yet
these failed to produce an amicable solution. Typically, these
high-level meetings carried on for a short while before one or another
of the ministers involved in the talks would exclaim at the first
available moment, "Oh, I say! Did you hear? The von So-and-sos are
throwing a large ball this evening. I do hope the orchestra strikes up
Sir Roger de Coverly!"

After
some weeks, the parliamentary assembly in Pillau-Zerbst called
impatiently for war during an emergency session in late May of 1768.
Unable to remain aloof any longer, the fashion mad, and at times
delusional, Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II of Stollen, to whom detractors
refer humorously as "that overcooked macaroni," offered the services of
his army to Pillau-Zerbst several days later, expressing wishes to
exact sweet revenge for the loss of the Mark of Schleiz to Zichenau
twenty years before during the Brocade Wars of the mid-1740s.

The
situation intensified when Zichenau recalled its ambassador from
Schmitten at the start of June 1768. Pillau-Zerbst and Stollen followed
suit, issuing mobilization orders. Neighboring Pillau-Reuss,
Werben-Steinau, Tauroggen-Fiebus, and Zeller-Schwartzekatz, watched the
developing situation closely from the sidelines.

After
much initial shilly-shallying by the respective commanders and their
armies, the first battle -- well, action really -- took place during
late December of 1768 at Zollamtstadt. There, the Army of Zichenau
managed to cross the Lesser Zwischen and establish a toehold in Stollen
proper, driving the weaker Stollenians under General von Drosselmaier
from that frontier town. Stollen met defeat again in the later Action
at Pelznikkel, fought during August 1769, and once more in the Action at
Pickelhaubewicz at the end of November that same year before the armies
went into their respective winter quarters at the tail end of December.

Fighting
resumed the following spring, during April and May of 1770, when
General de Latte struck deep into Stollenian territory with a combined
force of Zichenauers and Stagonians, achieving another victory at the
Battle for Saegewerkdorf. Fortunately, torrential rain and flooding
prevented the total destruction of the Stollenian army, but not before
enemy soldiers had occupied and dismantled the sawmill whose parts were
shipped back to the Electorate of Zichenau. There followed a relatively
quiet 14-month period before the two armies met again, this time in
July of 1772 at the epic Battle of Teodorstal. It was there, that the
Stollenians were finally victorious, following the surrender of General
de Latte to Stollen's General von Tschatschke, or that "Flamboyant
Silesian" as he is surreptitiously known among his junior officers.

Clearly
then, this corner of the continent has enjoyed little appreciable peace
since the conclusion of the Seven Years War. Despite their current
conflict, which some observers have wryly dubbed the War of the Buttons,
it seems that the Grand Duchy of Stollen and the Electorate of Zichenau
will continue to occupy the fringes of European political and military
affairs for the foreseeable future.

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"Moin, moin en wellkomm na' Schtollen!"

Welcome to the fictitious land of shiny mid-18th century miniatures organized into LARGE units. I lay the blame for this madness squarely at the feet of hobby giants like Peter Gilder and Doug Mason, whose Napoleonics as seen in the hobby press of the times were a huge influence 35+ years ago. Much later, I stumbled upon Charge! Or How to Play War Games by Brigadier Peter Young and Colonel James Lawford. I was a certified goner by the time I purchased and read The War Game by Charles Grant, to see what all of the fuss was about, plus numerous more recent books and articles by one Brigadier (Ret.) C.S. Grant. Have a look around, leave a comment or two, and explore the blog thoroughly. You're sure to find all kinds of interesting and whimsical stuff here at the Grand Duchy of Stollen!